Just Keep Swimming
by SilverLight7
Summary: It's every fan-girl's dream to be taken to another world. Unfortunately, she wasn't a fan-girl. She was a NORMAL fan, thank you. Being STUCK with a fan-girl, though...What in the world had she done to deserve this? No pairings.


Have you ever seen those stories where someone from the real world gets dragged into an anime world? Or even those with attempts at having an actual OC, but turn out to be- and I shudder just thinking about it -a Mary Sue? Yea, I thought so. They're everywhere. Anyway, this is kind of related to that.

You see, after seeing a bunch of these on this site, and after a few conversations with my sister concerning the "what if you were abducted?" scenario, I decided to write this. This, of course, being how any reasonable fan of one series might react if this were to happen to them, as opposed to what a fan-girl _thinks_ would happen (see: canon characters falling madly in love with them).

For the most part, this will deal with a lot of the clichés that one would see in those stories, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. However, considering the type of author I am, I will still be trying to create a decent plot and everything else that's in a good story- like character development. Here's hoping I manage it with this; it's a monster of a topic.

**Disclaimer: This is the disclaimer for the entire story. I do not own One Piece or any of the other things I mention or reference in this chapter or future chapters. All I claim ownership to is the plot and the two characters I've created for it.**

Chapter 1

Math was a decent enough subject, Patty mused. Until it decided to kick your ass, that is.

She had been sitting in one of her favorite places on campus, staring at the same problem for over ten minutes now, hoping to make some sort of breakthrough. Despite the peaceful and almost quiet properties of her spot, though, it just wasn't coming to her. Finally deciding to just go home for the day and risk asking her brother- she could never tell what sort of mood he was in -she began packing her belongings.

"Patty! Hey Patty~!"

With a slight grimace, she turned to face the caller, making sure to replace the look with a smile. "Hey, Diana."

Diana was a fellow student in her math course. It had been through sheer chance that they had discovered the other's mutual interest in One Piece; but it was also an event that Patty often wished hadn't happened. For, as the more..._avid_ fans sometimes did, once they found someone who was interested in their obsession, they wouldn't leave them _alone_. Not to mention that most conversations they had were only about how hot Zoro had looked in one episode, or how Diana would love to have a boyfriend like Shanks, or even the infamous-

"What if we were in the One Piece world?"

Patty sighed. Of _course_ it would be this question. It was a depressingly common subject for her. Although why Diana wouldn't just go to the anime club and find other fan-girls to discuss this with, she didn't know.

"You came all the way here just to ask me that?"

"Well, I also wanted to ask what you got for number twelve. I can't figure it out."

"I'm stuck on it too," she replied with a frustrated frown. "Damn calculus."

"Oh...So what would you do if we were in their world?"

Diana really wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't a fan-girl. She definitely wasn't stupid, at any rate. However, seeing as most of their conversations had Patty dealing with a one-track, male character crazy mind, it was hard to remember that sometimes. It was like all that intelligence just went out the proverbial window when the topic came up.

"You've asked me this already," she said, wondering how long it would take Diana to start mentioning how she would snag one of the men with her feminine charm or whatever. The only person she could think of it possibly happening with was Sanji- and even then she was somewhat dubious.

"I know, but I wanted to see if anything you said before was different."

"Not really."

"You're no fun. I would totally try to find Ace before he joins Whitebeard. Then I could be his first mate! I'd have a devil fruit, of course. It'd be wind, because air makes fire stronger which means that me and Ace would be even _more_ suited for each other! Then when Whitebeard comes..."

As Diana continued, Patty had to hold back a shake of her head. That hadn't taken long at all. It seemed the interest of the week was Ace. She'd feel sorry for him if he was real, but lucky for him, he wasn't. She also sort of wished her sister could be here. The very few times they'd had this conversation- which was filled with what they would _do_ there as opposed to who they would try to get romantically involved with -her sister had always made it clear that she would like a devil fruit that gave her power over wind. It was mostly so she could do things like some guy from another anime. What was his name again...? Ah, it would come to her eventually. Anyway, it would be fun to see what her reaction to Diana might be.

"Are you listening?"

"I missed the last part. Sorry."

"Daydreaming about Zoro? I know he's your favorite."

She couldn't quite hold back a grimace there. Wasn't it possible to have a favorite character of the opposite gender without fan-girls thinking you were in love with them? It wasn't because of his looks that he was her favorite, either, although it was a plus. It was more because of his strength, loyalty, and the gut-busting situations that Oda put him in- and the fact that he was a bit of a softie. She had a soft spot for the tough guys with the squishy insides, apparently. Them, and guys with glasses, but that was her own guilty preference.

Unfortunately, her grimace meant something different to Diana. "You _were_! Don't worry, Patty, I would never take Zoro from you. Even if he _is_ cute."

_'There's nothing __**to**__ take,'_ she thought, now somewhat annoyed. _'He's not __**real**__!'_

"If we were there," Diana continued, "I would change my name. They all have these cool Japanese names while we have boring American ones."

Patty had never really minded her name, to be honest. Sure, it sounded a bit funny when placed with some last names, but overall, it was nice. It meant noble or of nobility. That was kind of cool, even if she was the farthest thing from nobility.

"I'd be Sakura. I always loved that name. Then when I got together with Ace, I'd be Portgas D. Sakura."

Patty couldn't help it. She laughed. It just sounded so ridiculous. Sakura was fine for a few characters- the one from Naruto being one -but it never failed to amuse her that so many fan-girls thought it was the greatest name ever. If she had a quarter for every time an OC had that name in fanfiction...granted, some were starting to come up with more creative names, but the damage to name itself had already been done. She couldn't help but consider it a Sue name now.

"What's so funny?"

"Besides the fact that I don't think the 'D' carries over in a marriage?"

"It would! It is part of his name, isn't it?"

"I dunno. The 'D' is kind of mysterious."

"Whatever. Just tell me what's so funny."

"Well, the name, to be honest. It's a bit silly, don't you think?"

"It is not! It's a nice name! Ace would think so too!"

_'Not real,'_ she thought again. Seeing as Diana was getting upset, though, she quickly assured her that, yes, it was a good name and that she was just teasing her.

"I think you should come up with a name too," Diana said once she was mollified. "You have the same name as that cook guy that used to work with Sanji-kun."

"So? If anything, _he_ should change _his_ name. I can only imagine the sort of teasing the name brought a big, tough guy like him. Although that might be the point of him having it now that I think of it..."

"Patty!"

"Okay, okay. Let me think about it. But I have to get going. I want to get my work done today so I can play some video games. I got the urge to play like fifty games for some reason."

"Fine, but tell me when you figure it out."

"Sure. Bye, Diana."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

_"I'll come back for you! I promise!"_

_"I know you will!"_

Patty watched the final scene of Kingdom Hearts play out on the screen with nostalgia. It had been a while since she first played it, so it was nice seeing it again. Usually when she got the urge to play Kingdom Hearts, she took out her DS or PSP, since she was too lazy to set up the system. Speaking of her portable systems, though, now that she got the Kingdom Hearts urge out of the way, it was time for some Professor Layton. Or Pokemon. Whichever caught her eye first.

"Maybe even Little Big Planet," she murmured before pausing. "When I think about it, I don't have many games that would be considered for hardcore gamers, do I? Oh well, to each their own, I guess."

Two hours later, Patty was in her room, grumbling and staring at her DS with annoyance.

"Thirty picarats my butt. This thing is worth at least fifty."

With a sigh, she decided that this puzzle would have to wait. Maybe after taking a break, she would be able to think better. It was probably going to be something simple that would make her feel stupid for not figuring it out earlier too. So, she turned off her DS and got ready for bed.

She was not looking forward to the conversation that was awaiting her tomorrow. Maybe she could take a sick day...

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Something was wrong.

"-ty!"

Groggily, she realized that someone was calling her. Of course, this led to a few other thoughts. The first being was a question of who was stupid enough to wake her up this early in the morning.

"Patty!"

What followed was wonder at why there was a little girl in her room. As far as she knew, all of her cousins were past the little girl stage- not to mention most of them lived in other states or out of the country.

"Wake up!"

Finally, her other senses started to kick in, which was probably why the beginnings of confusion and panic were starting to set in. This was not her bed. In fact, it was the farthest thing from it. It was gritty, wet, and smelled like salt. Still, she refused to open her eyes.

"I'm serious! Wake up! You won't believe this!"

Wake up? Those two words made her relax. They explained so much. This was all a dream- albeit one of the most realistic she'd ever had. In fact, she didn't think she'd _ever_ had a dream that felt so real.

She yelped when the kick came.

"I warned you," said the little girl.

Patty glared at the girl, holding her ribs, but froze when she studied the face. Slowly, the color of her own face drained out, leaving her looking pale and sickly.

"D-_Diana_?"

She resembled the girl she knew, only much younger. How young, she couldn't tell, but it was enough to freak her out.

"Yup!" Diana chirped. "You'll never guess where we are!"

"In a nightmare?"

"As if!" Diana laughed gleefully. "It's the total opposite!"

"Right..."

Patty got up to dust herself off, but froze almost immediately.

"...Why am I tiny?"

"Geez you're slow! We're younger, obviously."

Usually, she was a patient person, at least she thought so, but there was a limit to her patience and this clearly merited some freaking out.

"No! _Not_ obviously! Waking up to find myself a kid again? Come on, Diana, be serious! This shouldn't be possible! In fact, this is a dream! I will wake up in my bed and take the day off from school, because talking to you has _obviously_ driven me to insanity!"

"How do you explain the pain from when I kicked you then?"

"You can feel pain in dreams," Patty answered with a flat stare. "It's possible."

"Someone's in denial," Diana muttered.

"No, _someone_ is sane, thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find some way to kill myself."

"Wait, _what_?"

Diana stumbled for a few steps before catching up to Patty and clinging to her arm.

"You just said you _weren't_ crazy! What the heck are you talking about?"

"Well, seeing as the use pain to wake up method isn't working, I'm going for the other, more extreme option I've heard about. I _knew_ I should have watched Inception, no matter how weird the movie was. Where's DiCaprio when you need'm?"

"He was Dom Cobb in the movie."

"Whatever."

"I suppose you'd be on the right track there, since one of the ways they would wake up was by dying, but I don't think you want to do that here."

"Why, and don't say it's because this isn't a dream."

"Then I won't say anything."

Patty rolled her eyes and continued on until she reached a cliff on the strange island she was on. She could have tried offing herself in the ocean, but seeing how real this dream felt, she would rather not have to make it slow and painful.

She stared down at the water for a few minutes until Diana finally sighed.

"...So are you gonna jump?"

"Damn it, it's just too _real_," she cursed in frustration. "I can't do it."

"Good! You've wasted enough time already!"

"What time? It's a dream."

"If you say so. Now we can go find Ace!"

"Oh no," Patty groaned. "Don't tell me-"

"We're in One Piece!" Diana squealed, unable to contain her excitement any longer.

"...I may not be able to do it myself, but someone please, kill me now."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOo Chapter End**

I apologize if any of you are named Diana.

When coming up with names, I actually wanted to avoid the cliché of having them be of some sort of Japanese descent (or having parents that apparently love Japanese names). I chose normal, American names because they are normal, American people. Patty was a bit of fun on my part because of the guy from the Baratie.

A lot of Diana's dialogue comes from conversations that I remember having with fan-girls. I'm not kidding, they really were _that_ obsessed. It didn't matter what anime/manga I was talking about, either, all that mattered to them was how cute/hot the guys were. Maybe I just had bad luck with fan-girls, but it was definitely a series of experiences that I'm not eager to repeat. Fan-girls are right up there to the fans that think they know everything about a certain subject, don't shut up about it, and are constantly trying to convince/force you to accept their view.

Yea, I've met those kinds of fans too.

Fortunately, I've got normal fan friends to help me through. My sister is also a constant source for discussion and entertainment- especially when she starts poking fun at clichés and bad plots. A lot of what our protagonist thinks and will do will come from conversations I've had with my friends and family.

So, yea, hope you enjoyed this first chapter. If this isn't you cup of tea...well, can't say I blame you. Feel free to read my other stories. They're real world kidnapping free. Until next time and take care!


End file.
